Hellhole

By: Brian Herbert, Kevin J Anderson

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Only the most desperate colonists dare to make a new home on Hellhole. Reeling from a recent asteroid impact, tortured with horrific storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and churning volcanic eruptions, the planet is a dumping ground for undesirables, misfits, and charlatans…but also a haven for dreamers and independent pioneers.

Against all odds, an exiled general named Adolphus has turned Hellhole into a place of real opportunity for the desperate colonists who call the planet their home. While the colonists are hard at work developing the planet, General Adolphus secretly builds alliances with the leaders of the other Deep Zone worlds, forming a clandestine coalition against the tyrannical, fossilized government responsible for their exile.

What no one knows is this: the planet Hellhole, though damaged and volatile, hides an amazing secret. Deep beneath its surface lies the remnants of an obliterated alien civilization and the buried memories of its unrecorded past that, when unearthed, could tear the galaxy apart.

©2011 DreamStar, Inc., and WordFire, Inc. (P)2011 Audio Renaissance

Critic reviews

“This new space epic from the best-selling team of Herbert and Anderson is wide and complex…Audie Award winner Scott Brick's performance keeps the suspense elevated. Fear not, these authors will deliver the rest of the story on schedule. Fans of traditional sf fare will keep this, and future volumes, moving off the shelves.” —Library Journal, starred review

“[Scott Brick] manages to capture the fiery determination of exiled General Adolphus and the cold calculating cruelty of Diadem Michella while still allowing the listener's imagination to fill in the gaps. The book's many other viewpoint characters also find unique expression in Brick's capable hands…Hellhole manages to stand out as a science fiction novel that succeeds in all the areas that the genre should. It's cerebrally engaging, spiritually challenging, and yet emotionally powerful as a story in its own right. I'm very excited to find out what the next two volumes have in store.” —Azurescape

“[Brick] has a very versatile voice which is easy to listen to, bringing life to all the characters in his own special way…The dialogue is fast and furious, likewise the action, and it is a page-turner from start to finish. Space opera at its best…this audiobook is certainly recommended not just for its story but for the good quality reproduction of the narration. It's new and exciting and it will surely be well received.” —SFCrowsnest.com

Act One of Three

Hellhole is a wonderful character driven story that strives to match the imagination of Frank Herbert's Dune series. It many ways it succeeds but it is hampered by the intention to make a Hellhole trilogy with a cliffhanger steeper than any other I've seen in literature. If you're not expecting it you can easily feel cheated but taking the events of this first book as a vignet into a larger, continuous universe you can still come away with an appreciation for Hellhole. It's still a very rich novel and one that has been better contrstructed than some other collaborations between Anderson and the younger Herbert. Enjoy, but do keep in mind what you're getting into.

Yet another great Hellhole story.

A futuristic Napoleon fights to defeat a tyrannical monarchy. Great story with lots of intrigue, plots and schemes. This is a book series that both men and women will like. Scotts wonderful voice is like a perfectly paired wine to this meal of a book. Women's voices are believable and not overmodulated. Character voices are well done without going overboard. I highly recommend this series.

Buy it, great sy-fi book sieries!!

What did you love best about Hellhole?

The great depth to characters and story board. Nice universe they create here.

What other book might you compare Hellhole to and why?

DUNE is definitely has a slight infulnace with the hierarchy and political sides. But well done and totally new. Nice concepts and story telling.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

Yes, he is a good story teller, better than most.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no, I understand this questions intent. NO ABRIDGED BOOKS! Since fiction reads want all the authors details as he or she has laid them out. ONLY MAKE UNABRIDGED AUDIO BOOKS FOR SY-FI! thanks you, ill only purchase unabridged.

Any additional comments?

I have gotten spoiled with the STAR WARS line of books that has edited music and noise. All si-fi books should have edited sound effects.

First of a series

Where does Hellhole rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

I enjoyed the story, but I hate it when the story ends with so many loose ends! I did not realize this was first of a series, but it was only published this year. Still, it would have been nice to know that this was the first installment. Being a long-time & devoted sci-fi/fantasy fan, I've got several story lines in progress & will be fine until the authors publish the next installment of the story. I like Scott Brick as well. Will probably watch for & get the next part, but will have to listen to the first part again to catch up.

Good, but would have waited

This is a good book, but very long and the ending leaves you hanging. I wasn't aware that this was a multi book novel. If I was aware of this, I would have waited until the others were available as this book leaves you hanging half way through the story just when it starts to get good. It takes awhile to get started and get an understanding of the world, but once the other books come out, I will most likely get them.

Time to listen a must

Hard to follow when your life is going to fast and you miss a lot of the story. Great for what I have heard. I will listen to it again

Excellent

What did you love best about Hellhole?

The characters are great. Each have very different personalities and motives and the complements and contradictions are fun.

What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?

Scott Brick is always OUTSTANDING.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I truly didn't want to stop listening.

Interesting first of a trilogy (mild spoilers)

It seems to me that nowadays every single book is part of a series, which I'm starting to take issue with because I'm not always in the mood for yet another endless series. Also, they require me to save every single credit to finish.

So it is with this book as well, it is again a Part One. On the plus side, this seems to be, and remain, a trilogy. I can deal with a trilogy.
Books by Brian Herbert (often together with Anderson) I find mostly good, but not as good as Frank Herbert. Which means it is well-written, has a good concept and its characters are sufficiently three-dimensional. Yet for me it lacks that 'je ne sais quoi' to get five stars. It's good, hence the four stars, but to get five from me a book needs to be wanna-binge-all-sequels-immediately captivating.
This is not that (for me, n=1). I think it's because it does not succeed in making me really care about or root for most of the main characters. This is because the concept of the aliens they encounter is original, but the way everybody reacts is not fleshed out enough to be believable.
*** mild spoiler ahead ***



For instance, why don't potential candidates not ask many questions about the mindmeld process, why would anyone ever want to be joined with an alien personality they know nothing about without the possibility of ever reversing the process? I mean, if we would not want to live with another human being in our own heads, why allow an alien in? The healing and the supernatural power that come with it could be alluring, but not enough to literally share your mind, thoughts, feelings, life forever with an alien (one who you never met before!) living in your head. That required a lot of suspension of disbelief. So much I almost lost interest in the story entirely.



*** end spoiler***

But, it's written well, and narrated well. Factors that made it an easy listen, and was able to hold my attention well, despite its shortcomings. Still worth four stars to me.
I'm not going to binge parts 2 and 3 though, since there are several 5-star series I haven't even finished yet, some of which with more than 10 parts unfortunately. (I really do wish there were more single book stories, or at least shorter series). Life is short and I don't know if I'll ever find the time to listen to the other two parts of a 4-star first part. Alas.

wasted credit

I agree with the others, would have waited to get this book if I had known it was going to be a series. the book was slow, but good, if their is a second part.

Hellhole

From the minds of Herbert and Anderson this feels like Dune meets Star Wars. It works so well. The story is compelling and the world building and characters are as well.